Beginner Stockton Infinity Bridge

[Karl12347]

Hi Everyone

I recently bought the Sigma 10-20mm from Marosser via the Classifieds section and last night was my first go with the new Lens.

This is one of the shots I was particularly happy with. I would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts and any advice of what I could do better?

I tried to stick with the leading lines from the path to draw the eye towards the bridge.


Stockton Infinity Bridge by Karl Forster, on Flickr

 

[Norkie]

Hi Karl,
It's exposed well for the sky but that makes foreground dark.
You could take two separate images and combine them, or do it in Elements for example.
You could have moved the camera to the right a tad, you'd have gotten last part of the suspended arc where it meets the road.

Keep snapping and keep posting

 

[Tony8]

It's a great subject, particularly at night (when you can get those lovely reflections). It was the first thing I ever photographed when I got my camera a few years ago and offers a lot of different shots from various angles (see here if you are interested)

Now, as you have asked for constructive criticism here is mine:
- when going for these wide shots try to get the whole bridge in. You seem to have clipped the right edge (despite that lovely new wide angle lens ) Looking at the exif you were at 13.3mm, so had plenty more width to use on this occasion, or you could have even just panned right a touch as you have enough room on the left hand side of the bridge.
- you say you were trying to use the path as a leading line, but to be honest it is too perpendicular to the subject to act as such. It makes for a pleasing enough foreground, but for me at least it is not serving the purpose that you intended.
- the sky is exposed nicely, but that has left the rest of the image somewhat dark and flat - this could be recovered in pp or you could try shooting with different metering modes
- I can see from the exif that you were in Auto Mode - absolutely nothing wrong with that, but if you are so inclined you should read up on the other modes and see if they offer you any more creativity given that you can control things like shutter speed and aperture

Please take all that in the spirit it is intended (to be helpful), keep shooting and keep posting!

 

[Karl12347]

It's a great subject, particularly at night (when you can get those lovely reflections). It was the first thing I ever photographed when I got my camera a few years ago and offers a lot of different shots from various angles (see here if you are interested)

Now, as you have asked for constructive criticism here is mine:
- when going for these wide shots try to get the whole bridge in. You seem to have clipped the right edge (despite that lovely new wide angle lens ) Looking at the exif you were at 13.3mm, so had plenty more width to use on this occasion, or you could have even just panned right a touch as you have enough room on the left hand side of the bridge.
- you say you were trying to use the path as a leading line, but to be honest it is too perpendicular to the subject to act as such. It makes for a pleasing enough foreground, but for me at least it is not serving the purpose that you intended.
- the sky is exposed nicely, but that has left the rest of the image somewhat dark and flat - this could be recovered in pp or you could try shooting with different metering modes
- I can see from the exif that you were in Auto Mode - absolutely nothing wrong with that, but if you are so inclined you should read up on the other modes and see if they offer you any more creativity given that you can control things like shutter speed and aperture

Please take all that in the spirit it is intended (to be helpful), keep shooting and keep posting!

Hi Tony

Thanks for the feedback and advice.

On the last note about auto mode, I think the editing software has changed the exif info as i downloaded something I have never used previously. I never shoot auto mode, believe I was using aperture mode when shooting this.

I will take everything else onboard that you said.

Karl

 

[Tony8]

No worries, be sure to keep posting your shots, always nice to see the results other local snappers are getting

 

[sbowler579]

Had a tweak will remove if requested, sky darkened, foreground lightened.

 

[Karl12347]

Had a tweak will remove if requested, sky darkened, foreground lightened.

That absolutely fine.

Can I ask how you lightened the foreground in PP? I am not that up on Photoshop / lightroom?

If I was to take a guess, you have altered the exposure overall to lighten the whole image and then used an ND Grad filter in PP to darken the sky?

Karl

 

[sbowler579]

That absolutely fine.

Can I ask how you lightened the foreground in PP? I am not that up on Photoshop / lightroom?

If I was to take a guess, you have altered the exposure overall to lighten the whole image and then used an ND Grad filter in PP to darken the sky?

Karl

Selection tool for top half,then brightness/contrast adjustment. selection tool for bottom half, then brightness/contrast adjustment.